Just because Google is leaving every other search engine in the dust, doesn't mean that they don't love the rest of the competition. This new homepage that Google is testing out drops the "I'm Feeling Lucky" option and replaces it with a Yahoo! search and a Live Search. Apparently, when Google had their whole "all of the Internet is malware" thing going on, research showed that a ton of people switched to another search engine immediately. In an attempt to keep all of their fellow Googlers, they are testing out this new page which has the option of - obviously - letting you search on Microsoft's Live or Yahoo's search engine. Apparently, Yahoo doesn't like this idea, they released a recent message saying, "You could go to Google. Or you could stay here and get straight to your answers." Nice attempt Yahoo!

Unlike Facebook, Twitter can make a change to their website and users won't complain about it. Amazing. "The change turns 'Replies' on the service into 'Mentions,' and groups them under a tab on the left labeled" with your @username. It includes every single time your @username is mentioned by someone instead of when Twitter used to just keep in track of when your @username was at the beginning of the tweet. Basically, if you use TweetDeck, it's nothing new. I love how you can shorten URLs right in TweetDeck, it's really useful for me.

Meet the Acer Hornet nettop. We've been hearing about it for a while now, but it looks like this could be the real thing. It has 1080p video playback via HDMI, the Intel Atom N230, 1GB of RAM, 80GB HDD and will run on Windows Vista Home Basic. You can upgrade the nettop to a model with 2GB of RAM, a 160GB HDD, "Boxshell" - a way to boot the OS nice and quick - and will run on Windows Vista Home Premium. If you get the so-called Media Center version, the Hornet will come with the Wii-like remote [above] that you can use for gaming and for media controls. It's like a Wii but in HD; take that Nintendo. As good as this sounds, I think the Wii has the upperhand here. It does have a cheap price range, which is always good. How does $149 to $299 USD sound? I certainly love it, but I'm not going to dish out the money for it. It's a very great nettop though.

Anything I get from N4G.com has me guessing almost all of the time. Usually, I don't find anything good or anything believable from there but this is so interesting that I just had to talk about it. Take it your own way, but apparently Square Enix announced today that Final Fantasy VII will be making its way to the Playstation Network this May. It will be available as a PSOne Classic in Europe and North America. I don't know why there is no word on an Asian release, which is why I'm kind of skeptical. Why wouldn't it come out to Asia? Asians love Final Fantasy and if they don't get it, they might start the next World War. Analysts do say that North Korea has nukes, y'know.

Asus has already mentioned that they are working on their own netbook running Android and now its HPs turn. They are apparently running tests for Android-based netbooks already. Apparently, this so-called netbook is said to be low-cost and be 3G-connected. Keep in mind that just because they are running tests doesn't mean that it will actually be released so don't get your hopes up too high. Nonetheless, I'm damn excited for this. I'd rather use Android than get this Conficker worm tonight.

The iPhone 3.0 OS Beta 1 was released 2 weeks ago and now Beta 2 is already available. What's there not to love? You get the iPhone 3.0 OS flavour with some improvements and it "feels much snappier" according to a developer reader. Go and download it, straight from Apple's iPhone dev page.

According to my knowledge, the Conficker / Downadup worm has been around since last October and targeted all Windows users. It was made by exploiting one of the holes in Windows. Microsoft patched it up later, but some of the public decided not to install the update because they might have turned their automatic updates off or for some other absurd / unknown reason. To show that it was a real serious threat, Microsoft issued out a $250,000 USD reward for whoever turned in the Conficker worm creator. Apparently, it only affects 9 million PCs (same amount from the January estimate), but it's still extremely serious. The latest rumour has it that Conficker C will be activated at midnight tonight - conveniantly April Fools Day - and your computer could then be "prompted to buy fake software products, or it could start monitoring your keystrokes to lift sensitive information like banking passwords. Files could end up deleted, or it might transform your computer into a zombie PC while staying under the radar." I guess this is one advantage the Mac has over the PC. On a side note, if you want to read a full length article on everything you need to know / how to stop the Conficker worm, click on the link below.

Ever since last Summer, the WiBrain M1 UMPC has had some problems launching. The UMPC is still in prototype form and is sporting just about the same specs from last year. It still has the same 4.8-inch touchscreen with a 1,024 x 600 resolution, the Atom Z520 processor, up to 1GB of RAM, up to 16GB of SSD storage, and possibly HSDPA. One of the only major changes is the QWERTY keypad. The new keypad makes typing even harder, having a touch sensitive-like flushed keypad. This is different from other QWERTY keyboards that actually are lifted off the flat surface, so that it's easier to type on. There is still no word on the price or availability but it could be a Korean exclusive at launch.

The Samsung Series 8000, 7000, and 6000 LED-backlit HDTVs may be confusing to tell apart, but I think you should know that they are all just about an inch thin, have Netflix capabilities, and will all be available in the first-half of this year. The 8000 will sporting 240Hz technology (4 times regular TVs), the 6000 will use 120Hz technology and 40% less power, and the 7000 will just be the middle-man - it will also have 120Hz technology and won't save the environment as much as the 6000 Series will. For pricing and availability we'll start off with the Series 8000 and go down from there.

Note: All money figures will be in USD. The 8000 Series will be available in May 2009. The 46-inch model will be $3,299.99 and the 55-inch model will be $3,999.99. The 46-inch and the 55-inch 7000 Series model will be released in March. The 46-inch model will be $2,999.99; the 55-inch model will be $3,799.99. The 40-inch 7000 Series model will be released in April and will be $2,499.99. The 40-inch, 46-inch, and the 55-inch 6000 Series model will be released in March. The 40-inch model will be $2,299.99; the 46-inch model will be $2,799.99; the 55-inch model will be $3,599.99. The 32-inch 6000 Series model will be released in June and will be $1,599.99.

Along with the new LED-backlit HDTVs from Samsung, their Blu-ray player lineup was also officially priced and dated with availability. The Samsung BD-P1600, BD-P3600, and BD-P4600 will be going on sale for $299.99, $399.99, and $499.99, respectively. According to my former knowledge, the 3600 and the 4600 will both have Netflix and Pandora streaming but I'm not sure about the 1600. The 1600 and the 3600 are actually now available at a number of stores. The one that really stands out is the BD-P4600 (pictured) Blu-ray player because it is only 1.5-inches thin - although you can't tell from this angle. The 4600 will be available in April and according to Best Buy's website it will be available on April 19.

In case you're interested in this lackluster phone, it will be available later this year via Sprint. Besides having a QWERTY keypad and the wanna-be smartphone look it has a fairly unimpressive spec sheet. The Sanyo SCP-2700 has a 1.3MP camera, Sprint Navigation, Bluetooth and your colour choice of either Impulsive Pink or Deep Blue (pictured). Don't forget, it will be available on May 10 on a 2-year contract through Sprint for only $29.99 USD after a $50 mail-in rebate. Yuck.

Final Fantasy XIII is hitting Japan later this year and then hitting North America early next year. Everyone is excited about how this game turns out. Apparently, the Final Fantasy XIII demo uses only 50% of the Playstation 3's power. That is said to increase to "nearly 100 percent" for the final FFXIII release. The screenshots of Final Fantasy XIII are looking amazing, but I'm wondering if those screenshots captured Final Fantasy XIII and the Playstation 3 at its best. I really hope this game turns out well, unlike FFVIII and FFIX, I disliked both of those games. Remember Final Fantasy XIII is expected to be released on the Playstation 3 as well as the Xbox 360 over here, but in Japan only a PS3 version has been announced.

If you have your iPhone / iPod Touch 2G and live in the US, you should have already gotten your chance to try out the free and new Skype app. Well, us Canadians are not going to get that option. It is not going to be available for Canada. It sucks, but is it really surprising? With Hulu, Pandora, and Last.fm (unless you want to pay) all being US-only we get no love up here, just north of the border. No one knows who to blame. It could be Rogers / Fido but a company spokesperson says that the Skype app won't be available to Canadians because of a patent-license issue. But wait... there is a work-around.

According to The Apple Blog, "you can always go the backdoor route and just download and sync Skype using an American iTunes account, which is not a difficult thing to get regardless of your country of origin. That's exactly what I did, and so now my iPhone is fully Skype-capable in Canada." Although, he is having some problems, he is going to guess that it is because of a iPhone 3.0 OS bug. Canadians try it out!

It's official, the Samsung YP-U5 and the Samsung YP-Q2 PMPs are now available in USA. I've talked a bit about the Q2 PMP before so I'll just briefly go through the spec sheet. It has an 8GB and 16GB model, 50 hours of battery life, a 2.4-inch QVGA display, and an FM radio / recorder, etc. The U5, on the other hand, has a small 1-inch OLED display, 20 hours of battery life, 2GB of memory, and an FM radio. They are going to be released this April for $99.99 USD (8GB Q2), $129.99 USD (16GB Q2), and $39.99 USD (U5).

FEDs (Field Emission Display) were going to one day replace LCDs and Plasmas, but it doesn't look like that will happen (thanks to OLEDs). Toshiba already gave up on FED and SED technology in January 2007 and now Sony has joined them. Sony once announced that they were going to buy a Pioneer plasma factoy in Japan and rebuild it into an FED factory, but they ditched those plans. I didn't really know much about FED technology, I knew more about SED technology. On a side note, Sony should focus on pumping out those OLEDs, even though I know that's not their main focus right now since they just announced their hook up with Sharp recently. I can't wait until OLEDs become mainstream, it's amazing what it can do. The price just has to drop on them, just like every other Sony product - I'm looking at you Playstation 3.

MSI's latest nettop is what you see above, the Wind Top AE1900. The handle on the back looks like it can be adjusted in a way so that you use it at a handle, just in case you need to bring it somewhere else. The best feature about this nettop is its ability to stay green. It runs on just 45W which is less than most light bulbs that are used today; talk about amazing stuff. The spec sheet isn't too bad, sporting: an 18.5-inch touchscreen (with a 5ms response time, WSXGA resolution, and 16:9 display ratio), an Atom 230 processor, up to 2GB of RAM, a 160GB HDD, DVD burner, an integrated webcam, a card reader and wireless n support. Keep in mind that it manages to have all these specifications and runs at only 45W! That's amazing, thank you Atom processors for making this possible. The price and availability is still, unfortunately, unknown.

The most recent leak from Samsung is the Finesse. It's a basic touchscreen handset with sub-par specs. It has a 3.2-inch WQVGA (400 x 240 resolution) display, a 2MP camera, a microSD slot, 3G (no Wifi), GPS, Bluetooth, and is only 0.49-inches thick. Since it was just leaked today there is no word on carrier, price or availability at the time. Look out for it at a later date, I'll update you on that.

This is the comparison shot. Clearly, the Samsung Instinct Mini is not so "Mini" beside its older brother. The Mini is actually a bit larger than the original Instinct, sporting a 3.2-inch screen compared to the Instinct's 3.1-inch screen. It also has some software updates so the Mini is basically just a slightly larger - in size - upgrade. I just thought I'd clarify that. Maybe that's what they'll do with the iPhone Nano too? It's a joke.

Please Sony, tell me this is a joke. They've announced their "big" announcement. Instead of dropping the absurd price of the Playstation 3 they have decided to drop the already low price of the Playstation 2 even more. To $100 USD. I'm really hoping that this is a Sony April Fool's joke. It has to be. Looks like Kotaku was right, the PS2 would be getting a price drop - one that's not needed though. Who's still buying the PS2 nowadays?

This fairly thick netbook you see here is the OCZ Technology's DIY Neutrino netbook. It was spotted at CeBIT earlier this month. This netbook is now official and has busted through the gates with its spec sheet. The Neutrino netbook has a 10.1-inch LED-backlit display with a 1,024 x 600 resolution, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, an integrated 1.3MP webcam, WiFi, and has twin stereo speakers on-board. It also has a couple of ports, including: VGA output, Ethernet, and two USB 2.0's. It only has a 4-cell battery, so that's kind of lame. "Notably missing is a hard drive, RAM, multicard reader and an operating system, all of which OCZ allows the end user to purchase as they see fit." I don't know exactly what this means because I don't know if OCZ expects you to go out and buy your own hardware - which is stupid - or OCZ gives you a wide range of options to choose from. Anyways, the Neutrino is now shipping, but only to channel partners (whatever that means) and will be available to the public for just $269 USD.

This is the first official shot of the Samsung Instinct Mini which will be released by Sprint later this year. It is anticipated to have an official announcement in the next couple of days, most likely at CTIA Wireless which starts tomorrow. This is the son of the Samsung Instinct which was released last year. It's got the same buttons and the same touchscreen, no word on the exact screen size though. Actually, no spec sheet is available, so just expect the official announcement from either Samsung USA or Sprint in the next couple of days.

The iPhone 4G and the iPhone Pro concepts may not be a good interpretation of what Apple is drawing up, but Gizmodo says that this iPhone concept could be the closest thing to the next iPhone model. While it does look very iPhone-esque it's clearly missing the secondary video camera on the front - for use with the new Skype client and possible iChat. It does look very nice, but I really hope that Apple decides to include a physical QWERTY keyboard. So far, it doesn't look like that could be Apple's intentions. The next iPhone will most likely have a larger and possibly even an OLED screen, but that could make it pretty expensive. I'm really curious to see what the next iPhone looks like and if I had the time to mock up my own illustration I would. The next iPhone will be even better than the iPhone 3G, I'm so excited.

Yes, it is finally now available on the U.S. Apple App Store. The free Skype client for the iPhone is now up on the App Store and people are already using it. So, go ahead and download it! Tell me how it works out.

It's a possibility. According to tmonews.com a "trusted source" has mentioned that the Huawei smartphone running Android will be hitting T-Mobile in Q3 this year. This is the same release date we expected when it was first revealed at MWC. Is it true? The reported specs aren't bad at all, including: a 5MP camera, 3.5mm headphone jack, WiFi, and Cupcake. Apparently, more photos will be released in a couple of weeks so look out for it. This phone does have potential, but I'm really sad to see that in its iPhone-esque body there will evidently be no physical QWERTY keyboard. I'm still extremely curious to see more information on this handset from Huawei.

After Nicole Cahill used the Wii Fit to walk again after being paralyzed, people though that the Wii was miraculous - okay I made that last part up. Tim Eves, "a 25-year-old scoutmaster and fisherman from Yarmouth, Norfolk in the UK, died while running in place on the Wii Fit." Apparently, he could have died doing almost thing because he died of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome, but since he died using the Wii, it makes it a terrible console to own. I'm just kidding around and I know I shouldn't be, but I dislike the Wii so I'm going to be a bit biased. He is going to be missed and his family mentioned that, "We all love him so much." It's a sad, sad day for the Eves family, I send my condolences.

Sorry Dell, but 192GB of RAM just isn't enough anymore. The fairly slim workstation you see above is from HP and was designed by BMW DesignWorksUSA. I don't know who was in charge of making this workstatation look fairly ugly, but it's not that important. The HP z800 workstation has: "Nehalem quad-core Xeon 5500 processors, two Nvidia Quadro 5800 graphics cards, and room for 196GB of RAM." Yes, it beats out the - already massive - 192GB of RAM that the Dell T7500 workstation has room for. Kudos for being so damn thin for a workstation; it makes the Dell T7500 look massive.

The Dell Inspiron Mini 10, that came out last month, now has the option to go HD. If you want the new HD 720p screen, it will be available for just $35 USD more than the old 10.1-inch widescreen Anti-Glare display with a 1,024 x 576 resolution. The new 1,366 x 768 resolution Anti-Glare 10.1-inch screen is now available, but it's optional so make sure you don't forget to check it off or else you'll be stuck with the non-HD display, which sucks.

Google Latitude will be coming to the iPhone and Google just wanted to remind all the iPhone users. This would be useful for Americans since everyone has the iPhone by now. Google Latitude makes it much, much easier to stalk all of your friends. Gizmodo points out that it will probably be released after the iPhone 3.0 update. On a side note, "it won't be released as a separate app, but integrated into the current Maps app." Google did say it was going to be released "soon" but we'll see when it will actually be released.

With CTIA Wireless starting in 2 days (April 1), it's no surprise we're receiving lots of new and announced phones. AT&T has just announced their newest 6 handsets: The Nokia E71x, Samsung Propel Pro, Samsung Impression (A877), Samsung Magnet, LG Xenon, and the LG Neon. They all pack a QWERTY keyboard / keypad, so if that's what you like then this is great news for you.

The Nokia E71x has a nice black finish along with a QWERTY keypad. The BlackBerry rival is "the slimmest smartphone to date" and has a 2.36-inch screen. It also has GPS, a 3MP camera with auto focus, HSDPA, WiFi, and a microSD card slot. The E71x will be available in a couple of weeks through AT&T for $150 USD on a 2-year contract.

The Samsung Propel Prois a slider smartphone with a QWERTY keypad. It has: a 2.55-inch screen with a 320 x 320 resolution, a 3MP camera with auto focus, WiFi, GPS, a 528MHz processor, 128MB of RAM, 3G, HSDPA, a microSD slot, Bluetooth, and a USB 2.0 slot. The specs aren't bad but it might turn you off to know that the phone is running on Windows Mobile 6.1. It will be available on April 14 through AT&T for $150 USD on a 2-year contract.

The Samsung Impression A877 has a 3.2-inch AMOLED (first AMOLED screen to hit the US) touchscreen with a WQVGA resolution and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It has quad-band GSM / dual-band UMTS with HSDPA support, Bluetooth, a 3MP camera with video recording, and a microSD card slot. This phone will be available on April 7 - later than the supposed March 29th release date - through AT&T for $200 on a 2-year contract.

The Samsung Magnet has a QWERTY keypad and is nothing fancy. Its spec sheet is not available, but it should be the least expensive out of the 6 handsets. It will be available through AT&T in a couple of weeks, but there is no word on the price.

The LG Neon has an ugly colour scheme, but it does have a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It packs a 2.4-inch screen, Tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support, a 2MP camera, FM radio, Bluetooth, and a microSD card slot to expand the on-board memory, of course. It will be available shortly through AT&T for $100 USD on a 2-year contract.

The LG Xenonis the nicest looking phone out of the 6, in my opinion. It has a 2.8-inch touchscreen display with a 480 x 240 resolution and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It has quad-band GSM, dual-band UMTS with HSDPA support, a 2 (or possibly 3) MP camera, Bluetooth, a USB 2.0 slot, a microSD card slot, and WiFi. It should be available on April 9 through AT&T, but the price has not been announced yet.

Last week, Last.fm announced that they would soon start charging a mandatory fee for its users outside of the United States, UK, and Germany. Well, Last.fm's latest blog post (which was today) talked about how they are delaying the mandatory €3.00 fee because of a bunch of negative feedback from its users. Again, they cleared up the fact that they're not making enough money with the advertisements, hence the move to a mandatory payment. If you want to know what the whole blog post was about - including paying via your cell phone bill - click on the link below.

If you want to pick up one of the above 8 colours, the Dell Inspiron starts at a base price of $299 USD and will be available worldwide this Spring. You have a wide range of upgrades so that you can make the Inspiron PC fit to your own needs. It has your choice of a slim tower or mini-tower, up to 8GB of RAM, up to 750GB HDD (on the slim tower) or up to 1TB (on the mini-tower),optional HDMI connectivity, optional 19-in-1 media card reader, 6 USB 2.0 ports, and has dual optical drive options on the mini-tower with a Blu-ray. For the processor you have your choice of: Intel's Celeron, Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad; you can also go for AMD's Sempron, Athlon X2 or the Phenom X4 processors. It will also have your choice of integrated Intel or ATI Radeon graphics cards. It has a nice, slim factor so that you can place it just about anywhere you want vertically or horizontally. It has a nice, cheap base price so that it should be in anyone's budget. Don't forget - $299 USD in the Spring.

Looks like MacWorld Expo 2009 wasn't Apple's last MacWorld. There will be a MacWorld Expo 2010 and it will be held on February 9-13, 2010. It will be held at the Moscone Center in San Franciso. An e-mail has been circulating to previous attendees recently confirming MacWorld 2010.

One of Motorola's better looking phone (somewhat) is now available. The Evoke QA4 showed up on Motorola's site earlier this month, but it's now official. The latest Motorola handset is a slider that has a 2.8-inch touchscreen display, the regular numeric keypad, 3G, a 2MP camera, GPS, and a microSD slot. On its HTML browser, it has a landscape on-screen QWERTY keyboard and shortcuts to MySpace and YouTube. There is no word on what carriers will be holding the phone, but it is "likely" to be either Sprint or Verizon. Update: (Thanks to Boy Genius) Cricket will be the carrier of this phone and it will be released in Q2 2009.

I've loved the LG GD900 ever since I spotted the transparent keypad. One bad thing with the keypad is that you can barely see the numbers on the damn thing (pictured below). I also don't think they double as glasses, so that's a thumbs down (above). All problems aside, I'm still in love with it, design-wise only though. I wouldn't get it because it doesn't have my desired slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Anyways, let's move on to what I'm supposed to be talking about. CTIA Wireless is almost here, in Las Vegas I mean, and the LG GD900 will be rocking LG's new 3D S-Class UI at the event. Another interesting thing about the GD900 is that it will use the keypad as a touchpad (similar to what laptop's have) to control your mouse when you're mobile browsing. Apparently, it will also have multi-touch to zoom in on your pictures and stuff. The LG GD900 has a gorgeous 3-inch display and is expected to launch in Europe and Asia this May. Unfortunately, there has still been no word of a release in the US, maybe it'll be announced at CTIA Wireless. It's a nice looking phone, definitely.

First up we have the Samsung M2710 which is evidently a slider phone. This music phone doesn't have a full spec sheet listed, but so far we know that it has a 3.5mm headphone jack, an accelerometer, Bluetooth, and a mere 2MP camera. Of course, there will also be a memory card slot, and FM radio.

Next up is the Samsung M2310. This is another music phone but this time, it's a flipper. The specs on this phone are even more unknown than the M2710. It has EDGE, Bluetooth, FM radio, a memory card slot, and a camera but the megapixel count is unknown right now.

This is Samsung's latest leak, which consists of 2 music phones: the Samsung M2710 and the M2310. Unfortunately, the release date and pricing is unknown at this time. For more photos, click on the link below.